Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie from her Catalina Foothills home has escalated rapidly. The FBI is now jointly running the investigation with Pima County. More than a hundred investigators are working the case. A fifty-thousand-dollar reward has been posted. And ransom notes were sent not to the Guthrie family or to law enforcement — but to media outlets including TMZ and local Tucson stations.
Those notes reportedly reference an Apple Watch and a floodlight, demand millions in bitcoin, and carry two deadlines. The FBI says there has been no proof of life and no follow-up communication. One person has already been arrested for filing an imposter ransom demand.
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer brings twenty-two years of Bureau experience to break down what the ransom communications are actually telling investigators. She explains how the FBI coordinates a hundred-person operation, why sending demands to the press is a red flag for investigators, what the Bureau accepts as legitimate proof of life when AI can now fabricate video and audio, and what happens behind the scenes when ransom deadlines pass with nothing but silence.
FBI SAC Heith Janke said in a normal kidnapping there would be contact by now. There hasn't been. Coffindaffer explains what that means.
#NancyGuthrie #FBI #RansomNotes #JenniferCoffindaffer #Kidnapping #CatalinaFoothills #PimaCounty #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #TrueCrimePodcast
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According to the unsealed affidavit, witnesses told investigators Michael McKee strangled Monique Tepe during their marriage, forced unwanted sex on her, and told her he could end her life whenever he wanted. She divorced him in 2017 after seven months. No police report. No protective order. She told friends and family she was afraid—then got up every morning and lived her life anyway.
What does it cost to function—to work, to fall in love again, to marry Spencer, to raise two children—while knowing someone has promised to kill you? That's the question that doesn't make headlines.
Strangulation is one of the most significant predictors of future lethality in domestic violence research. If McKee did what witnesses allege, Monique was statistically in extreme danger from the moment she left. Rob Misleh said publicly the family didn't fully understand the threats were real until it was too late. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott explains why there's so often a gap between what a victim communicates and what the people who love them actually hear—and what eight years of constant threat assessment does to someone psychologically.
Scott has spent over thirty years working with survivors of intimate partner violence. She's also a survivor herself—her ex-husband died by revenge suicide after she asked for divorce.
Then there's McKee's response to being charged. He pleaded not guilty. Waived his bail hearing but reserved the right to revisit it. Chess move, not surrender. Scott analyzes defendants who treat courtrooms like arenas—not places of accountability, but stages to prove they're smarter than everyone else. Ted Bundy, Scott Peterson, Chris Watts. The theory: the detachment that lets someone sit calmly facing murder charges is the same detachment that allegedly let them pull the trigger.
McKee has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
#MichaelMcKee #MoniqueTepe #SpencerTepe #ShavaunScott #DomesticViolence #Strangulation #CoerciveControl #DVSurvivor #ColumbusOhio #HiddenKillers
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Everyone already thinks Michael McKee is guilty. Surveillance footage allegedly linking his vehicle to the scene. A firearm from his Chicago condo matched through national ballistics databases. Witnesses describing years of alleged abuse—that he could "kill her at any time," that Monique would "always be his wife." His phone going silent during the murder window. The court of public opinion convicted him before he was arraigned.
Defense attorney Bob Motta looks at cases like this and asks the questions nobody else wants to ask. That's how the justice system is supposed to work.
The surveillance footage everyone treats as a smoking gun—how reliable is it really? Bob breaks down what people get wrong about video evidence. The hearsay testimony from friends claiming Monique said McKee threatened her—she's not alive to testify, so can prosecutors even use it? The phone going dark sounds damning, but digital evidence cuts both ways.
Then there's the not guilty plea. McKee waived extradition immediately and his bail hearing while reserving future rights. Strategy, not desperation. Forensic experts call defendants who view their own prosecution as competition the "game player"—the pattern seen in Scott Peterson, Chris Watts, Ted Bundy. Men who faced overwhelming evidence but refused to fold.
The same detachment that allows someone to treat a murder trial as an intellectual exercise may be the same detachment that enables the act itself. For the game player, other people aren't fully real. They're pieces on a board. The trial isn't punishment—it's the championship round.
This is an aggravated murder charge. Prosecutors must prove premeditation—not just that he did it, but that he planned it. Eight years passed between the divorce and the murders. Bob Motta explains why that timeline works for the defense as much as the prosecution.
#MichaelMcKee #MoniqueTepe #SpencerTepe #BobMotta #DefenseStrategy #AggravatedMurder #ColumbusOhio #TrueCrime #GamePlayerPsychology #HiddenKillers
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Nancy Guthrie is eighty-four years old, and she didn't just go missing. She disappeared from inside her own home—where investigators found blood at the entry and inside the residence. From the first hours, law enforcement processed the scene as a crime. Sheriff Chris Nanos confirmed this is being investigated as a kidnapping.
According to law enforcement sources, Nancy's pacemaker stopped syncing with her Apple Watch at approximately 2 a.m. Sunday. The device lost its Bluetooth connection when Nancy was physically moved out of range. The watch was left behind. Multiple cameras at the property were smashed. The back door was left wide open. Retired FBI agent Maureen O'Connell analyzed footage showing blood at the front door and said the round droplets suggest Nancy may have been carried out.
Roughly thirty hours after the initial response, the scene was released. Tape came down. Activity slowed. Then—without public explanation—everything reversed. Crime scene tape went back up. Multiple agencies surged back in. Canine units arrived. Officers focused heavily on the garage. That pattern tells a story. Scenes don't get reopened without cause. Something changed.
The investigation has turned toward family members as standard procedure. A vehicle belonging to Nancy's daughter Annie was towed and impounded. FBI agents spent two hours at Annie's home. Reports have emerged of ransom-style messages referencing cryptocurrency and claiming knowledge of crime scene details. Savannah Guthrie and her siblings released an emotional plea—specifically requesting proof of life. That language signals concern about the credibility of communications the family may have received.
Nancy cannot walk fifty yards unassisted. She requires daily medication that could be fatal if missed. She is past the seventy-two-hour mark. When asked if they believe Nancy is alive, Sheriff Nanos said: "We hope we are." Retired FBI agents were more blunt. One said the blood evidence "let the air out of my tires."
#NancyGuthrie #SavannahGuthrie #TodayShow #Tucson #CatalinaFoothills #Kidnapping #MissingPerson #FBI #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers
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Mica Miller called police fourteen times in her final months. She told officers she was afraid for her life. She told family members if she ended up with a bullet in her head, it wasn't by her—it was JP. Two days after serving her husband divorce papers, she was dead. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Now the federal government has indicted Pastor John-Paul Miller. They allege he cyberstalked her for eighteen months—tracking her car, posting a nude photo of her online, contacting her over fifty times in a single day, and lying to investigators about all of it. He has pleaded not guilty.
But this story doesn't start with Mica. It starts with JP's father—a man whose own ex-wife testified he exercised absolute control over his family and congregation. It continues through JP's first marriage, where his ex-wife alleges he confessed to sexual misconduct with underage church members. And it connects to Chris Skinner—a quadriplegic who drowned two weeks after allegedly confronting JP about sleeping with his wife. JP married that widow thirteen months after Mica died.
Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, who has spent thirty years treating survivors of coercive control, walks through how coercive controllers weaponize systems against their victims. In February 2024, Mica was involuntarily hospitalized. When she got out, her car was gone, her accounts were locked, and documents she'd collected about his abuse had allegedly been removed. JP told media Mica had "mental health struggles." Scott explains how abusers use these narratives to ensure no one believes their victims.
Two civil lawsuits allege JP and his father sexually abused minors for decades. They deny everything. South Carolina still has no standalone coercive control law. Senate Bill 702 keeps stalling. This case shows exactly why.
#MicaMiller #JPMiller #JohnPaulMiller #CoerciveControl #FederalIndictment #PastorAbuse #SolidRockChurch #MyrtleBeach #DomesticViolence #HiddenKillers
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